SOCOM Targets Boost in Procurement Investments

Feb. 11, 2014 - 03:45AM
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Adm. William McRaven said Feb. 11 that US Special Operations Command is planning investments for the next decade after years of heavy spending on training and operations during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (US Navy)

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WASHINGTON — US Special Operations Command is looking to boost its procurement investments as operational costs come down after more than a decade of war, its commander said.

“What we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to get rebalanced in terms of our O&M, our operations and maintenance money, and our procurement and [research, development, test and evaluation] money,” Adm. William McRaven, commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), said Tuesday at a National Defense Industrial Association conference.

Throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, SOCOM has spent much of its funding on operations and training, McRaven said. Now with Iraq war over and Afghanistan drawing down, SOCOM officials are planning investments for the next decade.

“We got a little bit out of balance in terms of our long-term procurement, our long-term R&D,” he said. “I’ve asked my staff, ‘Look, we’ve got to put this back into balance in terms of the share of the pie,’ if you will.”

McRaven last week was briefed by the military services special operations commands on several long-term “roadmaps” in areas such as maritime, ground and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

“Everything from small boats to submarines, from ATVs to up-armored Humvees or up-armored MRAP[s] … to hand-deployed ISR to big ISR and frankly, everything in between,” he said. “We develop these roadmaps. We then take all of the roadmaps that we have and we put them together and we say, ‘OK what can we afford to do? How do we prioritize the requirements? What do the operators need?’”■